


making love at midnight in the dunes of the cape

by AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Weddings, playing in another ficcer's world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 12:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17022612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: "Alya! —Hey, tiger, I guess your name is Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. Becauseapparentlythat's who my maid of honor thinks I'm marrying! —No, you dork, that's Kristoff's line, stay in character. You're supposed to finish my—hey! I waseatingthat! HANS!"





	making love at midnight in the dunes of the cape

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [i think it’s time i told you (i’m a fan of your universe)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11835279) by [a_miiraculer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_miiraculer/pseuds/a_miiraculer), [clairelutra (exosolarmoon)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra). 



> This is intended as a sequel, but it can be read as a standalone.

Alya rolled her carry-on into the arrivals lounge, Nino right behind her. "Did Marinette say who was picking us up?" she asked.

"Just that she was sending an emissary, I think." Nino scanned the crowd. "Aha!" He pointed at the sign reading CÉSAIRE / LAHIFFE.

Alya turned in that direction. "Think it's Mystery Guy?"

"Please, we're not that lucky." Nino raised one hand to wave at the sign-holder.

"Nino! Alya!" The tall blond holding said sign raised a victory fist.

"Adrien!" Nino stopped in front of him and looked him up and down. " _Damn_ , son. When did you get pretty?"

"Nino," chided Adrien, "you're a taken man." Alya scoffed. "It's great to see you both," Adrien continued, rolling up the sign and heading toward baggage claim. "How have you been?"

"Pissed off," said Alya at once. "Do _you_ know who Mari's marrying?"

Adrien snorted. "The way I understand it, Alya, Marinette called her parents first, you second, and the minute she hung up with you, she called them back and swore them to secrecy. And nobody has breathed a word about Mystery Man's identity since. Got to admire her tenacity."

"You know, Papa Dupain _did_ break his leg," Nino said contemplatively. "I bet if we got a hammer…"

"Don't say that where Marinette can hear you," Adrien advised. "Or Mama Cheng, of course, but Marinette's the scary one. You should have heard her when she realized that meant the father-daughter dance wasn't happening—it was _terrifying_. On that note, Alya, you owe me. It is my solemn duty and my honor and privilege as best man to take up your slack, but _goddamn_."

Alya winced. "This 'paid employment' thing sucks balls."

"Truth," said Adrien.

"Also sucking balls: not being able to evaluate whether Prince Hans is actually planning to betray the princess and abscond with the kingdom."

Adrien laughed. "I'm going to tell her you insinuated she has poor judgment and can't defend herself."

"Traitor."

"So!" said Nino cheerily. "What's new with you, dude?"

Adrien grinned back over his shoulder, eyes sparkling. "There's this girl."

"Oh?" asked Alya.

"Dude, you've been holding out on me!" exclaimed Nino.

Adrien shrugged. "Eh, it's pretty new." He tucked his hands in his pockets, the very picture of nonchalance, if one paid no attention to his lovesick smile. "I'm gonna marry her," he confided. "Don't tell."

"Dude!"

"No, seriously, don't tell," Adrien insisted. "I don't want to—to scare her off or anything. It's— _really_ new. Like, our first date was after Marinette dragged me into the wedding party, new."

"…Yep, that's pretty new," said Alya. "So, tell us about her!"

"She's _amazing_ ," breathed Adrien. "She actually works the same place Marinette does, and she's an artist, and— You know that whole 'the world _will_ do as I say, or else' presence Ladybug's got? That."

Nino snickered. "Dude, you're _still_ hung up on Ladybug?"

"Oh, shut up." Adrien came to a stop beside the luggage carousel. "She invited me to her wedding, you realize? Ladybug? I said of course, absolutely, can I bring a plus one…and then I actually opened the invitation. It's the same day."

Alya sighed. "Yeah. Us too." She moved to snag her suitcase. "I guess we're ghosting."

Adrien glanced over, smirking. "So would you say you plan to be there in spirit?"

" _Adrien_!"

* * *

RESERVED, read the sign before the dark curtain on the right side of the Grand Paris ballroom, and nothing else. The one before the curtain on the left side read RESERVED: DUPAIN-CHENG AND [PRINCE HANS] (NO SPOILERS). Alya started therefore to the left.

Chloé blocked her path. "Césaire," she said flatly, and far too loudly. "I understand _you're_ responsible for this travesty."

Alya winced. "I apologized eighteen times. I don't know what else she wants from me."

Chloé eyed her. "Maybe a little trust?"

Alya exhaled. "Guilty." And spotted Marinette, clad in a white camisole and leggings and sparkly silver stilettos, darting around the room. "What's she even _doing_ down here? She told me she wasn't going to let Mystery Guy see her before the ceremony, it's bad luck."

"She's fretting. She does that. And she isn't going to let the groom see her _in the gown_ before the ceremony," Chloé corrected. " _That's_ bad—"

Marinette bumped into Mylène, lost her balance, and fell: a _snap_ was plainly audible.

"—luck," Chloé said into the sudden silence.

Adrien pushed through the guests to drop to Marinette's side. "Easy, princess," he soothed, taking out a handkerchief to dab at the tears she was visibly trying not to shed. "Easy there."

Marinette sucked in a shaky breath, taking the handkerchief. "How bad?"

Adrien moved to undo her right shoe. "Well, you're not walking yourself down the aisle in your sparkly silver stilettos," he told her, showing her the ex-stiletto. He prodded her ankle in several spots. "I don't think it's broken, but—"

"If you suggest putting off the ceremony," Marinette snarled, "I will stab you."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Did I say that?"

Marinette glanced at the front row of chairs, where her father was already situated, his crutches leaning against the nearest wall. She bit her lip, sighed, and shook her head.

Adrien offered her an arm. "Think you can stand?"

She let him help her to her feet—to her foot. "Moth- _fucker_."

"Ew," said Adrien mildly. "Not taking weight, then?"

Marinette glared at him. "I _am_ dancing with my husband tonight."

Adrien considered. "All right, then," he said, and eased her over to the nearest chair. He dropped to one knee beside her, facing away. "Your chariot, my lady."

Mama Cheng helped Marinette climb onto Adrien's back. "You two good?" she asked.

Marinette gave her a thumbs up and wrapped her arms around Adrien's shoulders. Adrien smiled. "Never better."

"There will be first aid stuff in the room when you get there," Chloé said, reappearing. "Splints, ace bandages, analgesic cream—"

"You're a lifesaver," Marinette told her solemnly.

Chloé smiled. "What else are friends for?"

Alya picked up her skirts and followed Adrien up to the hotel room designated as the bridal staging area. Adrien was sitting outside the door when she got there: "She kicked me out," he told her despondently. "All I did was suggest she might want to put on the dancing skirt for the ceremony."

"I spent _weeks_ on the ceremony skirt!" Marinette shouted through the door. "You do _not_ get to deprive me of the look on Hans's face when he sees it on me!"

Adrien snorted. "No _ma'am_." He glanced up at Alya. "I don't suppose you've seen my plus one?"

"Not that I know of." She reached for the door handle. "If you see Mystery Guy, send him up. I want a word."

He shook his head. "Text Nino. Mari needs a ride back down, too."

"True." Alya went inside. "Hey, girl."

Marinette gave her a pained smile from the king bed. "Grab my flats?"

* * *

Alya and Nino started forward on cue, Alya holding her bouquet with one hand and Nino's arm with the other. Nobody had rehearsed this—Marinette's reaction the previous evening when asked about the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner had been to bang her head on the table until Adrien interposed his hand and ordered her to stop beating up his best friend; anyway, they'd switched it up last minute on account of Marinette's injury—but the woman Chloé had directing the event was most clear. They needed to reach the clear space in front of the first row, separate to round the stool someone had found for Marinette, and take up their positions on 'stage'. Nino was on the groom's side— _every_ single invitation, apparently, had gone out reading _Thomas Dupain and Sabine Cheng request the honor of your presence at the wedding of their daughter Marinette to the love of her life_ —and Alya, of course, on the bride's.

The music changed: Alya recognized it at once as the instrumental version of "Let It Go".

"They're really overdoing the _Frozen_ theme," muttered Juleka beside her.

Adrien and Marinette appeared. She was leaning on him, radiant and resplendent in white with painstaking silver embroidery and her hair twisted up with a silver ribbon, a cane in her right hand for balance; he had his arm around her waist, and in his other hand he held her bouquet. They made their way forward, and he settled her on the stool, handed Alya her bouquet, and stepped back beside Nino as the melody rose to a crescendo. She traded a slight smile with the old Chinese man standing as officiant.

No one else appeared.

The music shifted to the instrumental of "Beauty and the Beast". Then "Kiss the Girl". Marinette's gaze skimmed the room, again, again. Adrien took the ring box out of his pocket and flipped it open and closed, open and closed. A susurrus rose in the audience.

Halfway through "Once Upon A Dream," Adrien snapped the ring box shut again. "Nope," he said, silencing the room. "I'm calling it. Hate to break it to you, Marinette, but your fiancé's a jerk."

"And you're a liar," said Marinette with a hint of a smile.

"Marinette! You wound me!" Adrien mimed receiving a mortal injury, falling to one knee before her. He rested the hand with the ring box on her knee, and flicked it open again, and looked up at her, and _smirked_. "You know, rumor has it you fell in love with me right when we met."

"That's the rumor," said Marinette airily.

Adrien turned toward the audience. "This woman's a sneak thief, I'll have you know. She stole my heart the first day."

Nino glanced at Alya, and his expression was easy to read: _What the hell?_

"There's a tradition," Adrien continued, facing Marinette again. "In the groom's absence, it is my solemn duty and my honor and privilege as best man to marry the bride."

Alya gawked. So did everyone else.

"Dearly beloved," began the officiant.

"Get to the good part," said Adrien, grinning, as Marinette grabbed the ring box.

The officiant regarded them both, then focused on Marinette. "Do you?"

"I do," she told Adrien, shoving a ring on his finger.

The officiant turned to Adrien. "Do you?"

"I do," he told Marinette, sliding her ring on.

"You may—" They were already kissing.

Adrien leaped to his feet, snatched Marinette up, and bolted out, both of them in gales of laughter.

" _What_ ," said Nino.

"What do you mean, _what_?" Alya glared at him. "I am missing Ladybug's wedding because these two clowns wanted to pull a _prank_?"

Chloé cleared her throat. "Missed. You _missed_ Ladybug and Chat Noir's wedding."

Alya whirled on her. " _What?_ "

"It was here," Chloé told them all sweetly. "I don't think they invited _anybody_ —poor souls."

Alya stared at her in horror.

"Meanwhile," Chloé continued, "this prank does include the reception. Don't waste the food." She sauntered over to Papa Dupain's crutches and brought them over to him, and held a hand out to Mama Cheng. "Shall we?"

Alya watched them go, frozen.

A new melody started up as the guests began to file out. It sounded familiar, but Alya couldn't place it—

"Is that the fucking piña colada song?" growled Nino.

"Now that you mention it." Alya picked up her skirts, determined to go find the two _assholes_ who'd made her miss _Ladybug's wedding_ and give them a piece of her mind.

She got as far as the ballroom section designated as foyer and stopped dead. The curtains blocking off the other side were some thin, loosely woven material: through the fabric she could plainly see the spotlit couple revolving on the dance floor. Her legs were wrapped around his waist, he held her close and tenderly, and as Alya watched she laid her head on his shoulder.

She _knew_ those silhouettes. She'd done Marinette's hair like that herself.

Alya stormed past the curtain, noting that its sign now read RESERVED: DUPAIN-CHENG (NO SPOILERS). Projected on a large screen behind the dance floor were the words _Presenting for the first time: Madame and Monsieur Marinette and Adrien Dupain-Cheng_. The slide also showed, clockwise from the lower right, a chibi anime Adrien floating on a cloud of pink hearts after a chibi anime Marinette, who was facing away from him, her head in pastel blue clouds, daydreaming of a chibi anime Adrien.

…Yeah, Alya supposed, finding her place at the head table and watching other guests' reactions to the tableau, that was about the size of it.

The song ended, and Adrien deposited Marinette (now wearing a much simpler skirt with the sparkling bodice) in the chair beside Alya. He wiggled his eyebrows at Marinette, she quirked a smile, and they both dissolved into laughter again.

"I hate you both," Alya informed them when they'd calmed.

"Aww, Alya," cooed Marinette, "we love you too."

"What about your girlfriend?" Nino asked Adrien.

Marinette went off into peals of laughter. Adrien put on his best innocent face: "What girlfriend?"

"The girl you told us at the airport you were gonna marry?"

Adrien frowned at him. "Nino. I married her. Keep up."

Alya stared at Adrien, then at the helplessly laughing Marinette.

"Now," Adrien said primly, "if you're _quite_ done making fun of the newlyweds, I believe it's time for the mother-son dance." He strode over to Mama Cheng and bowed to kiss her hand. The slideshow advanced to a collage including some photos Alya recognized: Émilie Agreste, in some images alone, in others with a much younger Adrien. A waltz tune began.

Nino laughed, opening up the envelope that had waited on his plate. "You gotta admit, love, they got us good."

Alya put her face in her hands and _growled_. "Nino, we ghosted _Ladybug_ for this."

A note fell out of the card he held. "Uh, I wouldn't be so sure," he said in a peculiar voice, staring at the paper.

Alya leaned over: _Glad you could make it!_ it began in an altogether too familiar handwriting. _Please don't kill us?_ it continued in another. And anyone in Paris would recognize the signatures.

" _Marinette_ ," said Alya.

Adrien and Mama Cheng whirled past. Marinette took a flying leap, knocking over her chair, and landed on Adrien's back, laughing, and the dance took them away.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](http://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
